TERMINUS, FANUM
（
βωμός, Dionys.:
a shrine in the cella of Jupiter himself
(
Dionys. iii. 69), the central one in the great temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
perhaps consisting only of the rude stone that represented Terminus
(Serv.
Aen. ix. 446; Lact. inst. i. 20, 37; Aug. de civ.
Dei iv. 23), above
which there was an opening in the roof (Fest. 368; Ov.
Fast. ii. 671, 672;
Serv. loc. cit.). At least as early as the beginning of the second century
B.C. the presence of this cult was explained by the legend that there
were shrines or altars on this site of several deities who, when the
ground was desired for the temple of Jupiter, allowed themselves to be
dispossessed, except Terminus whose refusal to be moved was regarded
as a prophecy of the permanence of the cult and of Rome itself (Cato
ap. Fest. 162;
Liv. i. 55. 3-4; Ov.
Fast. ii. 667-678;
Dionys. iii. 69).
Later Juventas was joined with Terminus in the story (Flor. i. I. 7, 8;
Liv. v. 54. 7). The probable explanation is that the stone was a boundary
stone, a sign of Jupiter's function as the guardian of truth and loyalty,
and that the opening in the roof indicated his connection with the sky
(
Jord. i. 2. 12, 91;
Gilb. ii. 422; Schwegler, Rom.
Gesch. i. 794-795;
WR 136-138; Rodocanachi, Le Capitole 34;
Rosch. ii. 668, 708;
v. 379-384).
